Tegan and Sara, An Horse – Live (Jan. 11th, 2010)

The mark of a great concert is, more often than not, the atmosphere created by a sense of intimacy between the band and the crowd. No matter the venue or the style of music, the bands who know how to make their fans feel as if their playing directly to them are the bands who are able to give their fans bang for their buck; and last night the two bands who took over the stage at the Northern Alberta Jubilee seemed to understand that completely.

Australia’s An Horse warmed up the sell-out crowd and immediately kicked the show off on a good note. The duo used a simple setup, a single guitar and a bare-bone drum kit but they used that minimalism to the best of their advantage creating a sound that mimicked the headliners Tegan and Sara along with some of Brooklyn’s New Dress (another duo that uses two guitars; if you haven’t heard Where Our Failures Are, I highly recommend you do).

In between tracks from their Rearrange Beds album including Camp Out, Postcards, Little Lungs and Horizons, the band easily exchanged banter between one another, commenting on things like the politeness of Edmonton and the rivalry between Edmonton and Calgary which eventually led to a quirky little comment about the upholstery of the venue.

The simple and benign banner was honest and sincere, not forced or scripted like so many bands which right away helped create a sort of intimacy between them and the crowd. Of course, no band is able to captivate the audience through the use of random and far fetched stories better than Tegan and Sara and last night was no exception.

Their show began with a recording of Lesley Gore singing Sunshine, Lollipops And Rainbows which was followed by the lowering of a printout of the Sainthood artwork from the rafters. The band casually walked across the stage, said “thank you” and jumped immediately into the synth heavy Arrow. They kicked if off with a non-stop flow of songs, playing three or four tracks before they finally stopped to dive into the banter that makes their shows so memorable. 

Once again the Calgary-born twins filled any down time with random stories. They recalled visiting West Ed when they were eight and lamented over the slow decay of Galaxyland (previously known as Fantasy Land), they held a conversation with a toddler called Emily and proudly reminisced about their first words (“Popsicle” for one of them, and “Fuck” for the other), told grossly exaggerated stories about their first meeting with An Horse and Tegan even depicted her terrifying ordeal with a ghost in the bathroom of their changing room.

The stories were funny and captivating, adding a unique flair to the show that many bands lack as they pass through Edmonton.  Then again, it is a concert and the main reason to be there is the music and in that category Tegan and Sara excelled even more.

The duo covered a lot of ground in their nearly two hour set; in fact, thinking back I don’t think they missed a single song from their recent Sainthood album. Showing a unique versatility that only they have, the band was able to go from more punk-paced tracks like Northshore and Nineteen to the haunting So Jealous without missing a beat.

The emotion and tempo was equally repeated with the lighting effects that flooded the stage during every song. It pulsated with the heavier tunes, glowing brighter with each heavy keyboard note on tracks likeArrow and flooded the stage in cooling blue on Someday and Sentimental Tune. The lighting, at times, pushed the visual image to new heights – the silhouette of Sara Quinn against a twirling burst of white light during the final verse of Walking Like A Ghost is an image that should have been captured on film and preserved for eternity; but at times those same lights became too much to bare, particularly during the end of Where Does the Good Go which saw all of the spotlights blare white directly into the eyes of the crowd – many of which eventually had to cover their eyes and look away.

Despite it all, the highlight came at the end during the first three songs of the encore where the sisters stripped it down and performed acoustic renditions of Back In Your Head, Call It Off and Tiesto’sFeel It In My Bones.

For the second straight time Tegan and Sara sold out two shows in Edmonton – this time in a bigger venue – and if they continue putting on shows as good as this one, I see no reason as to why they won’t sell out even more in the future.